available at http://ejournal.unp.ac.id/index.php/jelt
THE ANALYSIS OF LISTENING STRATEGIES USED BY THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS OF FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS OF UNIVERSITAS NEGERI PADANG
Milda Sari Hadi1, Aryuliva Adnan2, Delvi Wahyuni3 English Department
Faculty of Languages and Arts State University of Padang
Abstract
The purpose of this research were to (1) see the listening strategies used by the students of English department UNP, (2) see the strategies used by the students with higher test score (successful listeners) and the strategies used by the students with lower test score (unsuccessful listeners). The design of this research was descriptive research with population were the second-year students who have taken the Listening 1 subject. The sample of this research was the K4 class with 19 members. The instrument used was the SILL questionnaire which has 50 statements. The result of this research showed that the strategies used by the students from the most to the least were metacogntive strategies, cognitive strategies, compensation strategies, affective strategies, social strategies, and memory strategies. Students with higher test score were shown to use metacognitive strategies with high intensity, followed by cognitive strategies, affective strategies, social strategies, memory strategies and compensation strategies. Students with lower test score were shown to use the metacognitive strategies in medium intensity, followed by affective strategies, compensation strategies, social strategies, cognitive strategies and memory strategies. What differ both students’ category was the intensity of the strategies usage
Key words: listening strategies, successful listeners, unsuccessful listeners.
A. INTRODUCTION
In academic settings, effective listening demands the students to do what is needed to gain the information. It also means that the students need to maximize themselves on their learning. The ability to understand the spoken language will be trained through tasks. They appear in the form of listening to dialogue and monologue. The students should choose their own way to cope with the listening tasks that suit them and apply it effectively. It will allow the students to increase and faster their learning progress.
Many things have been done in order to improve students’ listening ability.
First, scholars have suggested about listening strategies. It provides language
1 English ELTSP of English Department of FBS Universitas Negeri Padang graduated on September 2016
2 Lecturer of English Department of FBS Universitas Negeri Padang
3 Lecturer of English Department of FBS Universitas Negeri Padang
teachers the strategies that can be taught to the students. Second, in Universitas Negeri Padang (UNP), a subject called English Language Learning Strategy (ELLS) is offered to the students. It should be taken by all English Department students in their first semester. They will be introduced and guided to find their best way to learn and to improve their language skills. Third, in listening class the students are handed a workbook. They will find the “warming up” column at the beginning of each unit. Its mini activities give the students a glance of what the main task is going to be. Fourth, the lecturer also guides the students to complete those warming up activities. It gives students a chance to build their background knowledge. These all prove that each student has the opportunity to success in exploring their own ability and finding their best way in doing the listening tasks, using their own listening strategy.
As stated in the previous part, the listening strategies that are involved in the listening process have been suggested by Rebecca L. Oxford (1990). She classifies the strategies as the direct and indirect strategies which support each other and connecting with and assess each other (Oxford 1990: 14). The direct strategies directly involve the target language. It consists of the memory strategies, cognitive strategies, and compensation strategies. The indirect strategies contribute indirectly but powerfully to learning. It consists of metacognitive strategies, affective strategies, and social strategies. Below are the explanations of the strategies classified by Oxford (1990: 37-56 and 135-150).
1. Memory strategies help learners to store and retrieve new information.
They can be developed by:
a. Creating mental linkage like: grouping or classifying language material into meaningful units; associating or elaborating language information to concepts already in memory; and by placing new words or phrase in meaningfully in order to remember.
b. applying images and sounds such as: using imagery to relate the new language information to concept in memory; build semantic mapping to make an arrangement of words into picture; using key words to remember a new word by using auditory and visual links; representing sounds in memory which helps to remember new language information according to its sounds
c. Reviewing well in spaced intervals
d. Employing actions such as: using physical response or sensation like acting out a new expression to a physical feeling or sensation; and using mechanical techniques like using creative but tangible techniques in order to remember new target language information.
2. Cognitive strategies help learners to understand and produce new language. It can be developed by:
a. Practicing by doing: repeating something over and over; formally practicing with sounds, or practicing the new writing system of the target language; recognizing and using formulas and patterns; recombining known elements in new ways to produce a longer sequence; practicing the new language in natural, realistic settings.
b. Receiving and sending messages by; using skimming to determine the main ideas or scanning to fid specific details of interest; using print or non print resources for receiving and sending messages
c. Analyzing and reasoning by: reasoning deductively by using general rules and applying them to the new target language situations; analyzing contrastively by determining the meaning of a new expression by breaking it down into parts: translating the target language into the native language; transferring the knowledge of words, concepts, or structures from one language to another.
d. Creating structures for input and output by: taking notes of the main idea or specific points; summarizing the longer passages; highlighting by using a variety to emphasis techniques.
3. The third direct strategies are compensations strategies. They help learners to use the language for comprehension or production. They can be developed by:
a. Guessing intelligently by using linguistics clues; and by using other clues which are not language based clues.
b. Overcoming limitations in speaking and writing by: switching to the mother tongue for an expression without translating it; getting help by asking someone for help; using mime or gestures; avoiding communication partially or totally when find difficulties; selecting the topic of conversation to direct the communication; adjusting or approximating the message by omitting some items of information;
coining words by making up new words to communicate the desired idea;
and using a circumlocution or synonym to get the meaning.
4. Metacognitive strategies allow learners to control their own cognition.
They can be developed by:
a. Centering your learning by: overviewing the key concept and linking with already known material; paying attention in general to language learning task and ignore distraction; delaying speech production to focus on listening either totally or partially.
b. Arranging and planning your learning by: finding out about language learning through reading books and talking with other people; organizing through understanding and using conditions related to optimal learning of new language; setting goals and objectives in long term or short term goals; identifying the purpose of language task; planning for a language task; and seeking practice opportunities to practice the new language in naturalistic situations
c. Evaluating own learning by: self-monitoring through identifying errors in understanding or producing the new language; self-evaluating of the progress in the new language.
5. Affective strategies help to regulate emotions, motivations, and attitudes by:
a. Lowering the anxiety through progressive relaxation, deep breathing or meditation by focusing on a mental image or sound; using music; and using laughter to relax by watching funny movie or else
b. Encouraging yourself by: making positive statement to feel more confident n learning the new language; taking risks wisely even though there is a chance of making a mistakes or looking fool; rewarding yourself for a particularly good performance
c. Taking your emotional temperature by: listening to your body like the signals of stress, tension, worry, fear, anger, or may be happiness, interest, and calmness; using a checklist to discover feelings, attitudes and motivations concerning language learning in general; writing a language learning diary to keep tracks on events and feelings towards the learning process; and discussing the learning with someone else to discover and express feelings about language learning.
6. Social strategies are aimed to help learners learn through interactions with others. It can be done by:
a. Asking questions: asking for clarification or verification in which ask the speaker to repeat, paraphrase, explain, slow down, or give examples; and asking for corrections in conversations
b. Cooperating with other by: working together with other language learners to improve language skills; and cooperating with proficient users of the new language.
c. Emphasizing with others by: developing cultural understanding through learning about the culture; becoming aware of others’ thoughts and feelings through observing.
This language learning strategies that has been suggested by Oxford (1990:
37-56 and 135-150) cover the four language skills, Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Those strategies have been constructed into Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) questionnaire and have been used by researchers and teachers to see the strategy used by the participants or students. Besides, the research focused on the learning strategy had been conducted by Dini, Radjab, and Refnaldi (2014) who tried to see the correlation between students’ language strategy in reading and their reading comprehension.
It can be said that the using strategies in doing the listening tasks will lead the students to be more effective in their learning, especially in language learning.
It is also stated earlier that they have been given the introduction of those strategies in their first semester and on every meeting of the listening subjects. So it is necessary to see what strategies are used in the students’ listening process that will help them to increase their listening ability.
B. Research Methods
This research was descriptive research intended to see the strategies used by the students of English Department and to see the strategies used by the students with high score and strategies used by the students with low score.
The population of this research was the English Department students Education Program in the academic year of 2014. There were four classes of educational students and two classes of the non-educational students. Totally, there were six classes. The sample of this research was chosen by using one stage cluster sampling. Chen and Wu (2006) say one stage cluster sampling means that
a random sample of clusters is taken and observed. So, from 4 clusters available;
four classes of educational class, the chosen cluster was K4.
This research used questionnaire as the instruments. It was taken from SILL (Strategy Inventory for Language Learning) developed by Rebecca L. Oxford.
The questionnaire consists of 50 statements that cover the six strategies that become the concern in this research. In order to get the better understanding from the students or the respondent, this questionnaire has been translated into Indonesian language.
Table: The Listening Learning Strategies Indicators for Questionnaire Part Listening Learning strategies Number of Items
Bagian A Memory Strategies 9
Bagian B Cognitive Strategies 14
Bagian C Compensational Strategies 6 Bagian D Metacognitive Strategies 9
Bagian E Affective Strategies 6
Bagian F Social strategies 6
Total of Items 50 items
The questionnaire was taken at the day the students having their listening final exam. They were informed beforehand about the questionnaire. They took the questionnaire after the final exam. It was done and collected on December 2015. The questionnaire was scored based on the Strategy Inventory Language Learning (SILL) worksheet by Oxford (1990: 298). Students responded to each statement by giving the following score:
Table: Response to Each Statement
Never used 1
Seldom used 2
Sometimes used 3
Usually used 4
Always used 5
After that, the score of each strategy was added up, and got the average by dividing the total score with the amount of statements of each part. This applied to all six parts or strategies. The overall average of the strategies was also summed up by dividing the total score of all statements by 50 (amount of the statements).
The score of the six strategies then categorized based on the intensity of used as follow:
Table: Key to Understand the Average of Strategies Used.
High Always or almost always 4.5 to 5.0 Usually used 3.5 to 4.4
Medium Sometimes used 2.5 to 3.4
Low Seldom used 1.5 to 2.4
Never used 1.0 to 1.4
Source: Oxford (1990: 300)
The listening test score that obtained from the respective lecturer were categorized into high and low score. The score were categorized based on the range above:
Table: Scoring Systems of the Test Score Score Letter Description 81-100 A
High 66 – 80 B
56 - 65 C Medium
41 – 55 D 0 - 40 E Low
Students are sorted from high score to the lower score. It would be the focus of the next analysis. Their SILL results were seen from the sorted table. It is used to analyze the score and average of strategies they have been using. Then researcher analyzed the strategies usage intensity to see the strategies used by the two categories.
C. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Based on the result of the data analysis, it can be concluded that students in general use the listening strategies in high intensity. It means that they usually use the strategies. The findings also show that metacognitive strategies and cognitive strategies are the most used strategies by the students. Then it’s followed by compensation strategies, affection strategies and social strategies. The findings showed that memory strategies are the least used strategies.
Metacognitive strategies (Oxford 1990: 136) help the learners to control their own learning process, starting from focusing their attention, planning their own learning, and evaluating themselves. The findings show that these strategies are used with high intensity in general. It means that the students usually gain more focus by paying attention to what they need to listen, and ignore distractions around them. They also support their own learning by making link with already familiar materials that they have read or listened before. They also plan their learning in an effective and efficient way such as creating their own comfortable learning environment in and outside the class and seeking opportunity to practice outside the classroom. The students are aware of their own mistake while listening in English and tried to fix that in order to improve their listening skill.
Cognitive strategies provide the students to manipulate the target language by practicing it, sending and receiving message, analyzing and reasoning, and creating structure for input and output. The findings show that the students use these strategies in high intensity in their listening. They practice the language by listening to English materials over and over, and recognizing the pattern of the language. The strategy is also about getting the idea of the message (listening materials) quickly and using all resources to understand the message or to produce the message. The students also do analyzing and reasoning in order to understand the meaning of new expression or to create the new one.
The compensation strategies are the third top strategies used by the students.
It provides the learner the ability to use the new language to comprehend a message or to produce a message even though have limitation of knowledge. The abilities are to guess the meaning when the students do not know all the vocabularies. It is also about stay calm and not be panic when faced with the unknown vocabularies. The students pay attention to the clues needed to make the guessing.
The fourth strategies used by the students are affective strategies. They are about the motivation of the students, their attitudes towards the English listening activities, their emotions and value towards it. The students have positive feelings and emotions towards the listening activities. This affects their attitudes in learning listening. It influences their success or failure in the language learning.
Affective strategies are also about how the students control their anxiety that often blocks their learning, and the willingness of the students to take risk in learning.
The findings show the high intensity in these strategies, which means that the students are aware of their learning motivation and attitude.
The fifth strategies that used by the students are social strategies that show medium intensity of usage. It means that the students sometimes use these strategies. It involves learning with other people, that learning process will be improved by getting the feedback from peers or partner. Social strategies are also about asking questions on thing that is confusing or unclear to the students. It shows higher self esteem, enjoyment, and confidence of the students that relates to the affective strategies discussed before. Learning together with others show that the students are trying to understand cultural differences and be aware of other students thought and feelings.
Memory strategies are the least strategies used by the students with medium intensity. These strategies involve meaning of words and students are often troubled with remembering vocabulary. Even though these enables students to store verbal materials and use it again when needed in communication. Oxford (1999: 40) states that memory strategies are rarely used by the students and they are unaware of doing it. The same findings are shown on this research that the students only use the strategies in medium intensity compare to other strategies.
Out of the six strategies, metacognitive strategies appeared as the mostly used strategies by the students and showed the higher intensity of usage compared with other strategies. Even though the other five strategies are used by the students, but the metacognitive are shown to be the top strategies used by the students with higher score and also the students with low score. It’s because the metacogntive strategies are the strategies in which the students try to elaborate their other strategies and try to engage those strategies at the same time. They creatively orchestrate their other five strategies by paying attention to the listening materials, staying focus on what they listen to. They also monitor their own listening process by recognizing their own mistake and try to fix it for next time.
The students comprehend their listening materials by developing their own cognitive materials and strategies.
Another study was also conducted in order to see the listening strategies used by the EFL learners. A study conducted by Hassan M. Kassem (2015) to
Egyptian EFL college sophomores showed a bit different pattern that the most used strategy by the participants was cognitive strategies, followed by metacognitive strategies. It is because inferencing and use of background knowledge ease the EFL learners to overcome the limited proficiency of the language. It is also shown in the research conducted among Iranian EFL university students by Moghadam, Ghanizadeh and Pazhouhesh (2016), that the result showed the students employed cognitive and metacognitive strategies more than other strategies in their listening sessions. The students tried to understand the passage or the text while listening in order to receive more comprehensible data and understanding the content. These other studies showed that metacognitive and cognitive strategies alternate being the most preferred among EFL learners.
Vandergrift in Rost (2002: 154) states the strategies used by the successful listeners (higher score listeners). They are predicting information or ideas prior to the listening; making inference about complete information based on incomplete information; monitoring one’s own performance while listening; clarifying question about what information needed to respond to ideas presented information; responding, provide relevant respond to ideas presented; and evaluating, checking how one’s has understood. These six strategies are covered in the metacognitive strategies proposed by Oxford 1990.
The findings show that there are seven students with high test score, and they use metacognitive strategies in high intensity too that ranged from 3.8 to 4.6.
Vandergrift in Graham (2003: 84) argues that metacognitive strategies involve thinking about and directing the listening process that includes planning, monitoring, evaluating and problem solving. It is analyzed that these seven students regulate their listening comprehension process by creatively combine their specific cognitive strategies. He also argues (Vandergrift 2003: 90) that the skilled listeners use about twice metacognitive strategies as their less skilled counterparts. It is paralleled with the findings that the successful listeners with high test score are shown to use metacogntive strategies in high intensity compare to the lower score students (unsuccessful listener) who use these strategies in medium intensity with score ranged from 2.2 to 3.9.
D. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Based on the findings, it can be concluded that: (1) Throughout the analysis of the students’ questionnaire on the listening strategies, it is found that the students’ strategies from the most to the least used are metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, compensation strategies, affective strategies, social strategies and the memory strategies. (2) The successful students with high test score use the strategies mostly in high intensity. The strategies from the mostly used to the least are metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, affective strategies, compensation strategies, memory strategies and social strategies. Meanwhile the unsuccessful students with low test score shown to use the strategies in medium intensity and low intensity compare to the higher score students. The strategies used from the most to the least are metacognitive strategies, affective strategies, compensation strategies, social strategies, cognitive strategies, and memory
strategies. The successful and unsuccessful listeners differ in the intensity used of the strategies. When the successful listener with high test score used the strategies in high intensity, the unsuccessful listeners with the lower test score use them in medium and low intensity.
Based on the findings and discussion, the researcher has some suggestions.
Firstly, the students or the listeners need to find out more about their own strategies in listening activity, so that they will be able to optimize themselves in using, elaborate and combine those strategies to their own benefit in learning.
Secondly, since the strategies that the students used have been discussed in this thesis, it is hoped that it could give contribution for linguistic research about the strategies used by the EFL college students in Universitas Negeri Padang. For the lecturer, it is hoped that the research can be the reference to their teaching listening and help the students to improve their language ability by providing strategies training in the classroom activities.
Thirdly, it can be suggested to the next researcher to find out more about listening strategies the students used. It can be the correlation between the listening strategies used and the students listening achievement, also to find out more about the listening strategies that can be used for different task in listening activities. The research can be strengthened by increasing the number of sample.
Note: This article is written based on the writer’s thesis with a guidance from Aryuliva Adnan, M. Pd and Delvi Wahyuni, S.S., M. A
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